Many board games and console games commonly include multimedia components, sounds and/or music to attract and intrigue players of the games. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,379 to Forrest et al discloses a game host console connected to a plurality of player terminals for playing a multimedia trivia game with scoring for first-in-time and most correct responses. The players' responses are in the form of selections of text and/or images from multiple choices. U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,406 to Miles discloses an Internet-based game host service connected to remote players on computers for playing a scavenger hunt game for information obtained from websites. U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,024 to Von Kohorn shows a game host TV station connected to a plurality of remote game terminals or set-top boxes for playing TV-based broadcast games. The game terminals may be video game machines which can load game programs and score player inputs on keyboard or even voice input. U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,097 to Levine discloses a game host console connected to a plurality of player terminals for playing an audio quiz game based on audio clips played from recorded tracks of a CD. The players' responses are in the form of selections from multiple choices displayed to the players.
Similarly, U.S. Patent Appl. 2005/0059492 of Hedin et al shows a host console connected to a plurality of player devices in which the player devices can access a shared resource (display, input peripheral, etc.) through one of the devices. U.S. Patent Appl. 2004/0148419 of Chen et al shows a multimedia host computer connected to at least one player devices in which the player device is activated to provide an audio input to another player device. U.S. Patent Appl. 2004/0147301 Of Ikeya discloses a music-playing host console connected to at least one music-playing device (MIDI keyboard) in which a music piece is activated on the player device by the host and the MIDI inputs from the player's playing of the piece is recorded and scored by the host console.
While previous devices have generally used various arrangements of game host console connected to multiple player units for playing various music trivia or music-playing games, none of them allow a music challenge or trivia game to be played online by enabling players to compete against each other based on music that is in their personal music inventory on an Internet-connected computer or computing device.